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Need a full web design TEAM.

I'm an SEO manager for a company in Los Angeles. You can see our website here: https://opiates.com. I've been at the company for about 3 months, and in that time we've *almost* had our website re-done twice. It is badly in need of an overhaul in terms of design and navigation, but at the same time we can't afford to lose the organic traffic that we currently have.

Does anyone have recommendations for web development firms that can take on a BIG project and work with me to preserve the SE traffic that we currently have?

Jesse, I think Ray-pp does you a great service in pointing you to Moz recommended companies because obviously there are a lot of people who will immediately reach out to you as the result of this question. I am going to go an entirely different track for you and I will point to a firm that is not mine and explain why they would be a good choice. I also want to ask that you quit looking for a recommendation and start looking at what companies do.

Everyday, we talk with clients and potential clients about web development. Almost all have a story about the website that took a year or more to build or was never really completed. You have to quit looking at the companies that fail and ask yourself, "Why are they failing?" Those companies that fail will tell you it is because YOU did not get them the content. (Just think about that, "If it weren't for client's, they could be great at business!!")

You not getting them content is so much BS. It would have to be an extremely rare occurrence for content purely to halt the completion of a web dev project. The reason a project (for you, building a new or replacement site) does not go on schedule is because the company doing the project does not have a process for their dev team. Or, if they do have a process, they do not follow it. Understand if you call or walk in and ask, "Do you guys have a process?" they will all say yes. Ask simply, how do you go about building the site for me? How long will it take? Then wait for them to show you a process. Failure to show a process means: They do not have one.

When I started in SEO I never intended to go into web development or integrated marketing. Our company got into web dev out of self defense: I got tired of fighting "webmasters" or overlords over territory when trying to take care of someone's SEO. So, before I started hiring web developers I went to Distilled's website because I respected them, I respected things Will Critchlow had written - because they made sense, etc. I wanted to see what they did given they had to have experienced the same issues I was about to face. As a former critical care RN, I was sold on them. Because they had PROCESS. PROCESS. PROCESS. If a firm has a solid process, they will get the job completed on time. BUT - and this is a big BUT: They will be on you to produce as much as they are on one another. I got it from them, I have used it, and what Distilled does works.

I would ask anyone I was considering engaging a few questions: (First, call the company do not email. Call during business hours. Does a human being get to the phone to talk with you? If so you may ask these questions of them. If no human speaks to you during business hours, IMO they are not interested in your business right now. Sorry if that offends someone.)

Is your development team in-house or do you outsource? IMO - you cannot have the quality control with outside developers that you can when they are integral to the team that includes SEO's, PPC pros, copywriters, other marketing pros, Local experts, etc. That is a strong IMO. You must have an in house dev or dev team.

Do you have clocks? Yes, I am serious. A firm that is not tracking where every project is (projects on the clock) doesn't know when there is a failure. We are all going to have failures (including Distilled), the great company is going to know of it before the client does and they are going to practice something else I learned here from the Moz team - TAGFEE. In other words if they have a failure, they will report it to you before you discover it and they will have a plan of action to correct it and keep it from happening again in the future.

Are you active on any forums and if so, which? How active is active? - In other words are they learning every single day? EVERY DAY? If their team members are not on Webmaster World, Moz, SearchEngineLand, Linda Buquet's Local forum, etc. and ad infinitum, then they are not going to be up to date. That will cause failures and my guess is... they will not know it.

Who will run the project? (This is a trick question; do not tell others about it please!) - if they say you, I would take a pass. You are not a web development expert; why in the hell would they want you to run the project? why would you want to? You want input at every step (Distilled can show you a great input process at every step); they should want your approval at every step (I guarantee you Distilled will want your approval or they are going to let you know that your project is in some way sidelined). And that wanting your input and that wanting your approval will be the reason the project is done on time. Trust me please on this. When you get a sitemap or wire frame and you do not give approval, you are going to get an email that says, essentially, that your project is not moving forward until you either give approval or submit changes. If you submit changes, they will then ask again for approvals of their new sitemap, wireframe, comp, copy, etc.

So, that is what it should look like and that is a better answer for you than anyone telling you who can. Yes, I still believe that Distilled is a great choice, but now you can go out wherever and ask the questions that will allow you to choose even with no recommendation. Make sure you are all over them about process. Make sure there will be someone who you are going to be talking with all the time who is managing your project - ten people cannot manage a project.

I have to add this last part. IMO if you are wanting someone to beat a price or give you a lowball estimate, etc. that company that wins won't get it done for you. A good developer(s) costs money. You cannot build cheap great websites.

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